


Perks of Stopping a Ritual

by sorceresses



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-13
Updated: 2020-05-13
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:07:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24160294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sorceresses/pseuds/sorceresses
Summary: "You... lived so much longer than I thought you were going to.""I know. I'm sorry I made you wait."s3 spoilers!
Relationships: Sasha James & Tim Stoker, Sasha James/Tim Stoker
Comments: 7
Kudos: 43





	Perks of Stopping a Ritual

Tim’s world went black after the explosion.He didn’t feel anything, just a hollowness he’d never experienced before. He could feel his legs move as if he was walking, but there was nothing beneath his feet. He couldn’t see where he was headed. There was something, though. A pull. He needed to keep walking, he thinks forward, because there was something there. Someone, maybe. He felt an insatiable need to find out. He kept walking.

He kept walking.

  
He kept walking for what felt like moments, hours, days maybe, though he didn’t feel tired. He knew he had been walking for far too long, though. It was still dark and he was ashamed to admit it was almost comforting. He wanted to give up, to stay in that darkness, but he knew it meant the end to his travel. He could never see the tug if he stopped now.

  
Moments, hours, days.

  
Hours, days.

  
Days.

  
It was after what felt like an eternity that Tim saw even the faintest light. As soon as he saw anything but black in front of him, his entire body felt exhausted. He felt like he had run miles upon miles, though he knew he had just been walking. There was no reason for the weight that clung to his bones, every step he took feeling like he was dragging himself through mud that so thoroughly clung to him that he was sinking. He trudged on. He had to, he knew. There was no way out of the black if he didn’t continue.

  
He saw people he thought, sometimes. Fleeting images. It was family, friends, he knew. He knew by the laughter he heard in one moment. Jon, Martin, Sasha. Listening to Jon talk about emulsifiers. He saw the image so clearly in front of him he almost stopped, and he felt the emotion spring forth from his eyes. He missed them. Wherever he was, he needed to keep going. It would let him see them, he was sure. He was so sure.

  
The laughter grew, and he heard Sasha’s like bells over all the others. He could see her. Really see her, how she looked before the Stranger had taken her. Before the Stranger had taken the last thing he had. He still remembers quipping about Elias with her, her complaints about Jon’s filing, the late nights they would spend stapling, of all things.

  
And suddenly he was pulled upwards, and the sun shone so bright it hurt his eyes.

  
He let himself stop this time, feet planted on a dirt path in the middle of what looked to be a field. A field of flowers stretched out in front of him, what looked like a small home being what the dirt path he stood on led to. He trudged towards it, watching a tall figure walk around the outside of it from the back.

  
The figure had what looked like a ladder perched under their arm, a barking dog, and then a second following their every step. The man laughed as he perched the ladder under a second story window, and Tim would know that laugh anywhere.  
“Danny.” His voice was quiet, croaking out from unused pipes, but his brother responded anyway. He watched the younger man freeze, keeping a hand on the ladder as the two dogs bounded towards Tim at the sight of the newcomer.

  
Danny yelled something Tim didn’t have the power to focus on towards the open upstairs window before bounding over a small garden towards his brother. Danny swept Tim into a hug, and Tim felt the tears spring to his eyes. His arms locked around Danny’s back, both of the men laughing loudly as Danny half-spun them.

  
“Son of a bitch, you kicked it already?” Danny’s voice was full of laughter, teasing him as they parted. Tim couldn’t help his own laughter, the infection of Danny’s smile making his lips crack apart for the first time in what felt like forever.

  
“Says fuckin’ you,” Tim retorted, looking his brother up and down. He looked just as full of life as he had been in, well. In life. Though his admiration of his younger brother was cut short as he heard his name. A low whisper from closer to the house, and he could tell how Danny heard him now. It carried to him on a wave of emotion, the voice cracking slightly.

  
Tim whirled to see Sasha, and it’s like he was seeing her for the first time again.  
Her hands covered her mouth in shock, dark waves of hair tied back from her face by a handkerchief over her head. Her glasses were pushed up by the fingers gripping her face, and he took a moment to admire the view before his laughter burst forward suddenly. He watched as her eyes welled with tears and she rushed towards him, flinging her arms out as he also headed straight for her. His arms wrapped around her waist naturally, picking her up as her hands locked around the back of his neck and spinning her. When he set her down her hands moved to his cheeks, holding his face to look at her. As if he’d wanted to look anywhere else.

  
“You...” Her voice was choked, but the grin that grew on her face told him it was with happiness, “Lived... So much _longer_ than I thought you were going to.”

  
Tim chuckled as he brushed hair that had shaken loose out of her face, “I know. I’m sorry I made you wait.”


End file.
